Sex Differences in Learning Mathematics: A Longitudinal Study With Item and Error Analyses

In a longitudinal study we examined children's mathematics performance on assessment tests given at third and sixth grades. We contrasted successful performance on six categories of items by sex and by grade. We also evaluated unsuccessful performance by means of analyses of errors on individual problems. Two primary results of the study were that girls exhibit an advantage at third grade that disappears by sixth grade and that consistent sex-related errors are observed at both grades. We give an explanation of observed sex differences based on cognitive psychology, with particular attention to how mathematical knowledge is acquired and stored and to the role of automaticity in problem solving.